Mark Isaiah: 'The Voice' is like boot camp, Adam Levine will eventually see me at the Grammys!

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 05/15/2017

Mark Isaiah was eliminated from The Voice when the twelfth season's Top 8 artists were determined on NBC.

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Mark from Mount Pocono, PA, and the night's other eliminee, Lilli Passero from Los Angeles, CA, landed in the bottom three with Vanessa Ferguson from Greensboro, NC, based on home viewer votes cast following Monday night's Top 10 performance show.

This situation became Mark's fourth time in the bottom two or three during live shows when including the time his coach Adam Levine had to save him during "The Live Playoffs" Round. It marked Lilli and Vanessa's first time in the bottom.

After Mark, Lilli and Vanessa each sang a survival song live on Tuesday night, May 9, America tweeted via the show's "Instant Save" format to keep Vanessa in the competition. Both Mark and Lilli were therefore ousted from Adam's team, but Vanessa continues to move forward on The Voice as a member of Alicia Keys' team.

During a recent conference call, Mark talked to reporters about his experience on The Voice. Below is what he had to say.

I was wondering, how you were able to keep a positive attitude week after week being in the bottom two or three?

Mark Isaiah: Well, I've been enjoying this whole journey so far. I mean, I've been enjoying this experience and this journey and that's all I can think about at the moment I'm on that stage -- just the fact that I'm there, you know, standing in front of millions of people just performing live on television every week so, you know, I can't be mad.

There's people out there that don't get the opportunity to be where I'm at, I was Top 10. I've accomplished more than what I thought I would accomplish, and I'm super grateful for this experience. So, all I can do is keep a smile on my face and I have the support from everyone, all of my fans back at home. So I feel great and I'm super excited that I got the opportunity to make it this far in the competition.

Your coach Adam mentioned that he allowed you to choose your own songs. What criteria did you use when selecting songs every week during the competition?

Mark Isaiah: How I picked my song, it was just something that I kind of already had planned out before I even did the show. Because I've always had the mindset of doing the show and I kind of already had my list of songs I wanted to do, and some of them were on it.

And I think those songs, especially, were easy to make arrangements for me because they're kind of my style like pop and R&B, so I just picked my genre and put my own flavor to it, you know, just made my own arrangements to it. I'm glad that Adam believed in me as much to keep me on the show this long and to be able to give me the tips and advice that he gave me this whole way through the competition.

I was watching last night and I noticed Adam and Alicia had some very inspirational words for all three of you. Adam said your success is determined by what you do, by what you do in the future. How do you plan to apply the things that you learned on The Voice going forward in your career after the show?

Mark Isaiah: Oh man, there's so much that I can apply from what I've learned on the show to my actual career. My personality now and the way that I carry myself on camera and off camera, it's just different now because I've gained more experience, you know, being an artist and everything like that.

Basically, this is like boot camp, honestly, like the whole show behind the scenes it was like boot camp preparing you to become the best artist and then to do your best, and Adam was a great coach in doing that and helping me to become a better artist and do my best on stage.

I mean, performing, interviewing and everything behind the scenes, it's going to make it easier for me to go out and do my own thing, you know, start doing my solo music and start going on tour.

I told Adam actually after the show I was like, "Yes Adam, I'll see you at the Grammys soon." He was like, "Yes, I wouldn't doubt it." We're definitely keeping in touch and hopefully in the future we'll get some music started.

Mark Isaiah: So, what made me want to audition for The Voice? I just always had the passion for music and I remember auditioning when I was 17. I went to New York and I auditioned there, like at the open call, and they accepted me. And then the next one, I wasn't accepted, like, they didn't call me back or anything like that.

So I was really let down for that, and so, I just decided to keep following my dreams and never give up. I just couldn't find anything else that can replace music in my life, you know what I mean? I was just like, "I've got to do it again," and I prepared myself.

I had to work on my confidence again before my Blind Audition, and I just did it, went out there and I made it all of the way to the Top 10. I couldn't be more grateful to everybody that was a part of it. I had such a good time on this experience and it really helped me grow.

What do you see yourself doing next?

Mark Isaiah: Next, I mean I'm definitely going to start putting everything to use that I've learned on the show, like I'm going to start definitely recording music, I'm going to [do a single] as soon as I can and just start promoting and finding connections and producing at the studio and stuff like that.